Computational fluid dynamics study of 3-pass serpentine flow field configuration on proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance

A 3-D PEM fuel cell model with 3-pass serpentine flow field was developed to analyse the performance of the fuel cell. Simulations were carried out in the commercial ANSYS FLUENT 15.0 software with species concentration on the anode side as H-2 - 0.8, O-2 - 0, H2O - 0.2 and on the cathode side H-2 - 0, O-2 - 0.2, and H2O - 0.1. Along with the performance of the cell, key parameters like pressure drop, hydrogen mass fraction, oxygen mass fraction, liquid water activity and the membrane water content have been analysed. The results showed that when the cell was operated at a lower voltage of 0.4 V, i.e. a higher current density, hydrogen and oxygen consumption rates are high as well as water production rate. Finally, the proposed fuel cell model performance characteristics are compared with the available experimental data that shows good agreement.